3 Britons Slain by Lebanon Captors : Terrorists ‘Execute’ Trio as Concern Grows Over Reprisals for Libya Raid

Terrorists in Lebanon struck at Britain on Thursday, killing three of its nationals and abducting another as political tempers flared at home and public concern deepened over the consequences of aiding the United States in its attack on Libya.

The three slain Britons had been kidnaped and held by Muslim extremist groups. Their bodies were found in the mountains east of Beirut by Druze militiamen, who brought them to a Beirut hospital. A note left by the bodies indicated the “executions” were in retaliation for Britain’s role in the U.S. attack on Libya.

Early today, an anonymous caller told a Beirut radio station that the Briton kidnaped Thursday had been slain. But a police search turned up no body, and there was no other immediate confirmation.

The Lebanese violence was just part of the worldwide protest against the United States for the bombing attack on Libya and against Britain for allowing its air bases to be used by some of the attacking planes.

Another Briton Missing

In the Libyan city of Benghazi, one of two cities bombed by the Americans on Tuesday, another Briton was missing and feared kidnaped or detained, while at London’s Heathrow Airport, airline security guards averted a potential disaster when they stopped a woman about to carry 10 pounds of explosives onto an El Al Israel Airlines jetliner bound for Tel Aviv with 400 passengers.

There were these other demonstrations of anger at America:

--In Tunis, two young Tunisians on a motorbike tossed firebombs at a compound housing U.S. Marine guards and other U.S. Embassy staff members, setting an American-owned automobile afire, U.S. and Tunisian officials reported. No one was hurt.

--In Prague, Czechoslovakia, police stood by as Arab demonstrators smashed windows and burned an American flag at the U.S. Embassy. No one was injured. Other attacks or demonstrations occurred at U.S. embassies or consulates in Amsterdam, Lisbon, Madrid, Warsaw and Lagos, Nigeria.

--Thousands of Greek workers staged a 60-minute work stoppage in Athens to protest the action of the “American adventurers.”

--The government of Sudan, where the U.S. Embassy prepared to evacuate more than 200 staff members and dependents from the capital, Khartoum, said it recalled its ambassador from Washington to protest the U.S. raid.

Bitter Words for Thatcher

In London, as senior members of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government reviewed contingency plans for the possible evacuation of about 5,000 British subjects from Libya, news of the murdered Britons prompted bitter attacks on Thatcher herself at the House of Commons.

“You provoke terrorism,” opposition Labor leader Neil Kinnock shouted at the prime minister in a chaotic, emotional exchange.

Liberal Party leader David Steel added angrily, “That’s what happens when you turn the British bulldog into Reagan’s poodle.”

Although clearly on the defensive during the exchange, Thatcher doggedly defended her assistance to the United States and called on the country to stand firm against the heightened threat.

Thatcher Defends Role

“If you let the threat of further terrorism prevent you from fighting against it then the terrorist has won, and he will hold you to ransom,” she said.

However, she seemed to retreat at least to some degree on the extent of future British commitment to supporting U.S. attacks. On Tuesday evening, in her initial statement to Parliament on the raid, she said it would be “inconceivable” to deny American planes and American pilots permission to fly from British bases to protect American lives.

On Thursday, in the face of intense pressure from her political opponents and a series of public opinion polls showing that between 65% and 70% of the British public disagreed with her decision to allow British bases to be used, she stressed that the United States would have to seek permission for any further attacks from Britain and that such a request would not automatically be approved.

Government Blamed

Nevertheless, opposition members of Parliament blamed the government for the deaths.

“By acting as an American puppet, this government has placed the lives of countless innocent British citizens in danger,” said Ron Leighton of the Labor Party. “Does it understand that the responsibility for their blood is now on its hands?”

The three bodies brought to the American University Hospital in Beirut were identified by an Irish diplomat as those of three kidnaped Britons. They had been shot through the head.

A group calling itself the Arab Revolutionary Cells claimed responsibility for the slayings and said they were in retaliation for Britain’s role in the U.S. raid.

“We have carried out the execution verdict against a responsible officer of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and two British intelligence officers,” the note said. “The verdict is in line with our determined efforts to hit the enemies of our Arab nation, headed by the neo-Nazi, (President) Reagan.”

In Washington, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the killings in Lebanon “bears the mark of the type of activity undertaken by Abu Nidal.”

“It’s just their mode of operation . . . the method they were killed, the way they were found, the way the phone calls came in, all of that information,” Speakes said.

Responsibility Uncertain

Speakes stressed that the Administration does not know for certain whether Libya was responsible. In response to a report that one of the three men killed was a CIA agent, Speakes said, “I do not know if there was any U.S. connection.”

Asked whether the Administration would study whether the killings warranted further U.S. action against Libya, Speakes said: “Certainly. All terrorist acts worldwide will certainly be taken into consideration.”

But asked whether an attack upon a British target would be viewed as an attack upon an American target, Speakes said, “Well, that’s not my words. My words are that we deplore terrorism anywhere. We will certainly stand with our allies shoulder to shoulder to combat terrorism.”

Two of the slain Britons, Philip Padfield, 40, and Leigh Douglas, 34, both teachers at the American University of Beirut, were kidnaped March 28 as they returned home from a night club. The third victim, identified as 64-year-old Alec Collett, was a writer employed by the United Nations. He had been held captive for more than a year.

Raid Provoked Killing

In Los Angeles, Collett’s son, David, 27, a salesman who lives in North Hollywood, also said the raid had provoked his father’s kidnapers into killing him.

“I certainly don’t feel you fight terrorism with further violence,” Collett said. “That’s just not the way.”

“I would like to personally ask President Reagan if his wife Nancy were held captive in Beirut, whether he would have taken the same chances. Likewise, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.”

Shortly after the bodies of the three men were discovered, witnesses said they saw a carload of gunmen kidnap the fourth person, identified as a British television cameraman, 29-year-old John McCarthy, as he drove to Beirut airport.

Today, the caller told the Christian-controlled Voice of Lebanon radio station that the Arab Revolutionary Cells had also killed McCarthy, wrapped his body in a blanket and placed it in a seaside building in West Beirut. McCarthy was reportedly trying to leave the country at the time he was abducted.

British Building Hit

A few hours before his kidnaping, the British ambassador’s residence was hit by four rocket-propelled grenades. The building was heavily damaged, but there were no injuries. The ambassador, John Gray, was not in the residence at the time.

Reports of the possible detention or kidnaping of a British national from the Libyan city of Benghazi are more sketchy and unconfirmed, but the British community there is said to be increasingly nervous as animosity against it grows.

While contingency plans have apparently been prepared for possible evacuation, the Foreign Office in London insisted late Thursday that no decision had been taken to begin transporting Britons out of the country. Most of those residing there work at lucrative jobs in the Libyan oil fields.

Since Britain broke diplomatic relations with Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s regime two years ago, these workers have been periodically warned that they remain in Libya at their own risk.

Times staff writer Maura Dolan contributed to this article from Washington. Other stories, pictures are on Pages 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23.